Welcome to “Beers ’n’ Bites in Brussels”, a brand new blog about places to eat and drink beer in Brussels!
Another blog about food, you might think? There are plenty of food blogs indeed, and plenty of blogs about beer as well. The combination of food and beer is not uncommon either, but those are often focused on ‘beer and food pairing’, which is nice, but not what we’re trying to do here.
With this blog, we’d just like to show you places in Brussels where you can have a nice meal, preferably with a good beer, or places where you can go for just a good beer.
We’re not the kind of foodies you’ll find in the most exclusive restaurants: the beer menu is often limited, and portion sizes as well… When we go out for an evening of dinner and drinks, we’ll probably spend more on the beer, than on the food.
We do like to get our money’s worth, though. Good food is nice, a lot of good food is even better. We’re partial to all-you-can eat formulas, but that doesn’t mean we’ll eat anything as long as it is unlimited or cheap… If restaurants use ethically or locally sourced products, that is a big plus, but in the end it all comes down to taste.
Although we really appreciate traditional Belgian beers, especially sours, brewers that try new styles like IPA’s and imperial stouts, excite us just a little bit more. Places serving foreign beers — and I don’t mean the likes of Carlsberg and Corona — immediately have our attention.
You might have noticed we’re not using the expression ‘craft beer’ so far. That’s not because we don’t like the expression — we probably use it quite often — but because it still lacks a proper definition, and is already being abused by bigger, industrial breweries trying to ride the craft beer wave.
So let’s just stick with ‘good beer’, full of taste and made with honest ingredients — rice and corn are fine on a plate, but not in a glass.
Some of our favourite breweries include Cantillon, De la Senne, Struise, and Dochter van de Korenaar in Belgium, and Mikkeller, De Molen, Stone and BrewDog abroad.
In the next couple of blog entries we’ll introduce you to some of our favourite bars and restaurants in Brussels.